Kabul: The Afghan government has said that it will not participate in a regional meeting on Afghanistan held in Tehran, a senior Taliban diplomat said. Zakir Jalaly, the third political director of the foreign ministry, wrote on X that the Afghan government expects that established mechanisms should be used for discussions on Afghanistan, not new ones.
Special representatives of Iran, Pakistan, Russia, and China met in Tehran late last week to discuss Afghanistan. This comes as the United Nations is set to hold an international meeting of various countries' special representatives for Afghanistan later this month in Doha, with the aim of increasing international cooperation on the country.
The Taliban did not participate in the previous round of the Doha meeting in February. Jalaly added that the Taliban is engaged in talks about the upcoming Doha meeting. In December, the UN Security Council adopted a resolution calling for the appointment of a special envoy for Afghanistan. The Taliban have consistently been against this.
Since returning to power in 2021, the Taliban have rejected calls for the formation of an inclusive government and to ensure women's rights to education and work. As a result, no country has recognized their government. The country’s banking reserves are frozen in the West, and senior Taliban leaders are on US sanctions lists.
This week, the UN Security Council lifted travel restrictions on four senior Taliban government leaders. The bans were removed for their visit to Mecca, Saudi Arabia where they will perform the annual Muslim pilgrimage of Hajj. (IANS/DPA)
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The Taliban has said that they are open to cooperating with the German government on the deportation of Afghan criminals back to their home country. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said recently that he wanted to see the swift deportation of criminals back to countries deemed unsafe by the government in Berlin, including Afghanistan and Syria.
The initiative comes after outrage was triggered by the recent killing of a police officer by an Afghan national. The attack took place at a rally held by an anti-Islam group in the western city of Mannheim.
